Weekend at Gwysol's

Episode: XVI

banter, banter, banter…(everyone tried to convince LB to watch STRANGERTHINGS),
but back to the real world; People leveled up.
Jesus we need to figure out this bear forever.
Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes — turn and face the monster manual.SLOWKNIFE.
4 of us are petrified. Not the girl and the wizard. ie Pic & Sid.
Ironvein is attacked by a mummy.
Pic swipes with slow knife and misses,SLOWWWWW knife, take it easy.
It’s a swing and a miss.RAIF ie Seth Rogan.
“Swiping right”.
Gringlke gets into the fray, the James Fray, “You leave my friends alone!”
Grinkle connnects, with mummy leg. They don’t seem super fazed, but they think “shitbird” in a negative way.
No one has shit their pants thus yet.
Mummy #1 turns around to grinkle. IV is just petrified out of her choice. It’s rather stupid. Being rather terrified.
The future is female.
The mummy hit grinkle.
Son of B – it’s magic missile time.to the asshole who attacked IV and Grink – on the mean mummy – and Sid made an impact.
Slow knife, drops, mummy and Pic have the same initiative – drops the knife as the mummy kicks, and the knife goes into the pool. RAIFE spiderman’s across the ceiling.
This is gnome.
Remember way back when? BEfore Will was born?
Moving on.
Grinkle takes another swing and hits… he gets like another solid shot into the mummy, who seems pretty unFAZed.
Grinkle is coming through in this life, ie Mark Goodermote,
The archer slips off a bandage, but that don’t mean much.
More Magic Missiles!
I just sent this all to Alycia.
Grink fucking clocks the mummy over the face, but he’s just more agitated, damn these fucking mummies.
Blav is going to try to bring the dawn.
Cue the metal music, the guitar wails, and the sun IS going to rise.
But he farts and not a lot happens.YEEEEAHHHHHHHHHHH.
Mummy #1 takes another swing at Grink. That mummy was not all that cool, and the mummy pulls all its Mummy weight around, exploding Grinkle’s head. Goodbye Grinkle, for now. We are all covered in dust, except Nekron.
Sade tried to kill a mummy, and barely much happened.
Nekron goes after the mother scratcher that took down Grink.
Syd 2 squares over takes our her p-rose dagger and screams “fire dagger!” – she passed it off and ran.
Pic don’t mean much. Atleast in this moment.
2 darts go into 1 mummy, 2 into the other. Slash, grinkle is dead.
B cures light wounds on Sade, he screams, “thanks friend!”
Mummy1 turns to Nekron, and connects for, 2 pts of damage.
IV shoots 2 magic missiles at the mummy – he shudders but he’s still standing.
We are barely cutting off more than a square of toilet paper at a time.
A mummy hits IV for too much.
Sade makes them work for it, the operator of smoove.
Nek screams, “MAGIC!” and starts turning into a bear.
That bear “bearly” got it.
IV tries to throw a magic dart but doesn’t hit it.
Syd then goes, “um, I’m kinda far from them.” she shouts, “SOMEBODYPULLOUTYOURFLINT & TRY TO LIGHTTHEM ON FIRE,” it’s probably not gonna work, but it’s what she yelled.
Pic screams “PYROS!!!!” x20!!!!
The MUMMY is looking real rough at this point, one might say he’s “unraveling”.
The mummy is bummed and takes a flaming stab at Pic, and hits and oh shit, it’s not good. Shiiite.
Blav cures some light wounds at pic, and is a hero once again.
IV is almost dead.
Sade lights a torch crazy on fire.
Nek is still changing. Soon he’ll be a bear.
Ping ping ping goes his armor.
IV throws some magic missiles and the mummy don’t look awesome.
Syd found the slow knife.
When is that bear gonna get here?
Pic ain’t good enough.
Raif looks deep in thought.
Blav does produce flame.
IV got a mummy fist to the face, she’s pretty much dead.
Sade just hangs, with a torch, “I’ve got a torch!” he screams.
It’s BEAR time.
Bear tries some stuff, bear bear, paw paw, hug attack wannabe,
Ironvein swipes with longsword and the sword gets lodged, IV moves back with an open hand and Syd puts a potion bottle in it.
IV is dying.
Sade sets the other mummy in flames. Fire fire fire!
IV layes dying – she stabilizes.
Sade lights the room up.
Is the bear crying?
It’s unbearable. The un-bearable heaviness of being a bear.
And, he un-bears.
There’s mummy stank on any wounds.
The bear and Syd stay with IV, everyone went to find a way out.
They all go out, talk to a wolf about their wounds, the wolf maybe pees on the leg but it doesn’t do much. But he sniffs and is grossed out, and that’s enough to know, no good.
Back inside, they take their shifts as well.
Everything passes uneventfully.
Sade gets a lot of good sleep.
Blev fixes IV.
Syd opens the book to the middle, reads about the knife, then draws a circle into the air, at first nothing, and then feels something and keeps going, and what was once there disappears and it fills with stars and lines.
Did we just open another dimension?
Until NEXTTIME on weekend at Gwys’.

EPISODE XV: Turns out the halls are haunted.

The rest of the campaign are hiding at other end of hall. We see the statue come to life and swing down, seemingly at nothing. Pic is invisible but the statue hits him for 2 Damage and he becomes visible again.

Blevat rushes the statue, and get a hit. Nekron rushes as well, hits. Pic hits. Ironvein and Shade stand down. Sid magic missiles into his eyes and he crumbles into dust.

One of the other statues starts moving about. The group hustles to attack…. but here’s a voice “Grrriiinnnnkkkle”. The group questions him, is that really you Grinkle? Sid ESP’s into his head, it is Grinkle, but now he’s a Stone Goblin Chieftain.

Just then someone runs around the corner, it’s Katahdine. “What’s up guys, we went to bed and then I woke up alone?” They look at him like he’s crazy. Ironvein passed you a night or so ago when you left? Katahdine doesn’t remember anything other then falling asleep and then waking up in the halls alone. Sid ESP’s him and sees he’s telling the truth. They are skeptical, and don’t 100% trust this being… ask to see his hands… silently decide they will keep an eye on him.

There is a long argument about going outside for sleep or not and we decide all to go outside. Magicians are tapped out, and Blevat needs to get some sun.

Nekron is at the front of the path, moving down a hallway, opens a door to an army of Kobold’s. Several attack Nekron and miss. Nekron misses. Pic tries grabbing. Kha starts Chanting. Grinkle runs forward and kills one. IV hits an archer with magic dart. Nekron hits the big guy for a nice chunk. One of the archers pokes himself in the eye while firing towards Nekron and shoots his buddy in the back of the head. Nekron kills the big guy. Pic hits another one. IV hits another one. One of the Kobold’s is so freaked out by Grinkle that runs away and Nekron takes him out. One Kobold runs off, we shoot and miss. Nekron takes out another. Pic takes out yet another. IV takes out the last one. We decide not to go after the last one, we need sleep.

We go outside ….. although Grinkle won’t leave the entrance place a few paces.

The next day we rest up the whole day while they heal Nekron. Everyone starts to trust Katahdin again.

Another day and they heal the group… that night at Syd tells a story around the camp fire… tells Katahdin the story of the elf they saw slaughtered. Nekron pulls out the ring and shows Katahdin, he tells the group it was his sister’s. He asks if they are sure she died, Blevat says “Yeeeeaaaaahhhhhh.”

Katahdine walks out to the edge of the forest to have a moment alone, IV follows at a close respectable distance, keeping watch of Katahdin while he takes a moment to grieve. Shade watches a ways away with 1 eye. Katahdine returns to the group and asks if they have any more info. The group tells him everything they know. Shade sees his wolf friend, and approaches… the wolf tells him there is a new evil stink at the cave entrance. Everyone decides they will sleep and approach in the AM.

That night – On Shade’s watch, the wolf returns and says “Look up,” they look up to many eagles flying away, the wolf talks to the eagle who says “Darkness is coming.” The eagles are heading east. The message is passed through each watch and shared with the group in the AM.

The next morning…
Rainbow Ghost Protocol formation – Pic goes first leading invisible, messages back to IV that coast is clear, and group moves on. Pic enters a room, the room of the last battle… although all the bodies are gone the walls doth still run red. “Ghost protocol clear,” messages Pic. The group moves forward. She moves through a door… this girl is so cautious (thinks the group), but they carry on. The ask her to look around a new corner. She continues to move silently, or what she thinks is silent.. it’s another hallway… that’s not where we are going, so she continues on the main path. Katahdine asks IV to message to Pic, “thank you, I realize the risk you are taking to get back my sisters remains.” She does so, and they carry on, ghost protocol, corners clear. This is taking forever.
Pic turns a corner and spots a trip wire – she messages to the group through IV that she found a trip wire and is going to try and remove it. “Do you need help?” “Standby.” She is able to un-tension the line, it seems to do nothing, she warns the group to be weary. She gets to the corner where they killed a wizard, all clear. She gets to the door to the round room, she looks through the keyhole – doesn’t appear to see any movement in the room. The group follows in, at the end of the hallway.

Pic sees inside the room, the body of the fighter is gone, but everything else around the fire remains the same. Including the fingerless remains of Kat’s sister. IV holds the group back and Kat asks for a moment alone. He walks into the dome part of the room alone, sees the remains of his sister in the middle of the room. He moves to cover his sister and her remains crumble to ashes. Kat collects the ashes and walks out of the room. He checks the room one more time for evidence but doesn’t see anything.

He leaves the dome and walks to the group, says he wants to go outside to spread her ashes, Ironvein says she will go with. At that moment they hear a rumbling, Nek asks if we can hit the breaks and work on staying alive. Blev hands him an empty potion bottle, “Here, but her in here.” We decide to explore the dungeon, utilizing the Ghost Protocol. The group gets to the crumble doorway room with the trap door on the ceiling made of stone. Nek and Grink try the stone door – no dice.

Ghost Protocol back the other way. Heads to new territory. She enters a new room, the ceilings jut up, 30ft high. All along the wall are lose rings, as if you’d tie up horses to the walls here. The are pretty big rings about 5 ft off the ground, looking up there is a huge steel plate bolted to the ceiling, coming down from the plate is giant steel chain, made of steel links… the last link has clearly been pried apart. She relays this back to the group, Kat says, “maybe that’s what we heard.” Pic brings the group down and they check out the room- nothing more there. Along the way Shade finds a secret door halfway down the hallway, he opens the door and says, “Look everyone!” The group comes over.

The secret door leads to a hallway. At the end of the hallway are 3 doors, 1 on each wall. Pic starts to enter the hallway… a few steps in she feels the floor start to give way and leaps to safety revealing the dark pit now in a section of the floor. Pic heads to the 3 doors, continuing to communicate w/IV through the rings. Pic investigates the 3 doors – nothing interesting. She tries the south door – it opens. Inside a small room she seems the skeleton of a warrior crumbled on the floor. Opening the east door, she see a much much larger room – 50 ft tall, with columns in each corner which go all the way up to the ceiling. Outside the pillars is stone floor, inside, the floor drops slightly, looks like an inch, with a pool of glass… or that is one it looks like. And in the middle of that”glass pool” is a square hole. She radios is back. Lastly she looks in the 3rd room, another skull body in a tiny room. They looks like warriors that died at their post.

The team comes up with a rope plan to get everyone across. One by one, IV ties a knot and each person climbs across the abyss – Sid first, just makes it, Blev as well… and then Kat gets 5 ft across and drops slightly, stuck in the middle – Blev tries to pull him up and instead falls into the pit. Along the way Blev tries to grab Kat and fails, Kat tries to grab Blev but fails. Blev falls 20 ft. Nek takes his spear and pulls Kat in. Nek/Kat prep another rope for Blev, while Shade goes across. Followed by Grinkle and lastly IV. Then Nek/Grinkle pull Blev up.

The group approaches the glass pool. Pic tosses a cheap coin onto the glass pool to test out the surface. The coin hits the surface, which is clearly water, and we hear it tink at the bottom, is about a foot deep, but the depth perception is a bit weird, and the ripples that move from it seem off… as if they move slowly.

The group surrounds the edge of the pool.

Kat throws a coin into the hole, or tries… it ends up on the other side, in the water, it makes dink sounds as if its falling down stairs.

Blev walks into the water shouting “Leeroy Jenkins!” He steps into the pool, it feels cold, but not unnaturally cold. It just feels like water. And the ripples just move very slowly from him, in the dungeon water. The water settles fairly quickly. He moves over to the hole and sees a series of steps that go down on four sides. At the bottom he sees a wooden crate. Pic joins in the water and climbs in to check out the crate, walking up the steps to the hole. Pic doesn’t detect anything weird about the box. She tries to lift it and he can’t… and can’t open, it’s locked. Sid passes the steel key she has (from the owl tree) to Blev, who passes it to Pic. Pic tries the key, it slides in good… the key fits. She opens… inside she sees a knife. she picks it up and says “Ha, ha I’ve got the knife now turn on the damn lights.” It’s a simple knife, with a wrapped hilt… it looks dull, not very sharp, the tip is cracked off slightly. She take the knife and re-locks the box. Blev collects the coins, and then starts leaving, he hits something, it’s a dagger – he tells the group and picks it up. It’s a super shiny dagger. He keeps looking and finds a horseman’s mace. Takes that as well and keeps looking… but finds nothing else. Sid pulls out the beginning, middle and end book. As soon as Pic takes the knife and puts a toe back in the water to leave, the room starts to shake, and the ripples go super fast, from everyone in the pool causing ripples. Two pillars flanking the entrance of the room crack at the bottom and crumble… forcing their way out are two 8ft tall mummies.

EPISODE XIV: Shit is Getting Realzer

All healed up. Watch comes and goes uneventfully for Nekron, Shade, Khatadin, Blevat. Reife is not getting paid enough to watch. Piccolo is last watch, watching as Blevat goes outside to see the dawn. He messages Pic and tells everyone to wake up. When we do, he returns with Ironvein and tells us that we traded one elf for another. Khatadhin left because there was an emergency at the incense factory. Ironvein says that her people are generally okay and that she hasn’t heard any additional news of the Zherenthim. (But using fewer words.)

We march down the halls towards the statues: Pic scouting, Nekron, Shade, Sid, Reife, Blevat and Ironvein in the rear. Pic checks and sees some doors, listens through first door but can’t hear anything inside. Due to an illusory wall opening (or a DM re-drawing the map), we now can see into the hall with the statues. Pic can see some of the statues.

Pic is about 50’ down the hall and looks like she wants back up. All the elves, half-elf and mage follow her. Blevat stays, thinking she’s a pussy, and Reife (laziness) and Nekron (sense of duty) stay behind.

Blevat goes to the first door and kicks it in. Immediately vomits because it’s a store room full of putrid, rotting meat. Nekron peeks in, doesn’t like smell but no pukey. Sees a door on the other side that swings open. Pic leaves and goes around the corner, checking for traps.

Pic continues down, checking traps. Ironvein goes through the door in the bunk room that goes through the hallway. She goes through it. Pic is taking a right, Ironvein blazes down the hallway to the left. She has an amazing dexterity but rolls a 19, so she trips a tripwire and takes a crossbow to the shoulder. She loses 4 HP and rips it back out of her shoulder. Keeps going down the hallway. Blevat’s a little turned on.

Pic goes to the end of the hall on the right. Dead end. But there’s a hatch. She tries to push it, barely moves. But does seem like it should move, something’s on top. Shade tries to help. Doesn’t really give. Sid casts invisibility on Pic so she can continue looking while invisible.

They move back towards Ironvein and Nekron. Blevat and Reife are back talking about beer. Piccolo moves ahead to where Ironvein and Nekron are as Blevat and Reife meet up with Sid and Shade at the intersection.

We’re talking to each other when invisible Piccolo comes running back to say that there’s some shit going on down the hall with Ironvein and Nekron. There’s a sorcerer in the room and Ironvein seems to be in a trance. We rush towards them.

Only Blevat can get in the room immediately. He starts casting Chant. Ironvein yells, “Hey Buddy, I’m dying here!” She sends two magic missiles into the green cloud and hits the Sorcerer. He walks out of the cloud, coughing. Nekron swings at the guy in front of him. Piccolo runs in and tries to backstab the Sorcerer. Sadly, he pukes right as she pulls out her blade so she completely misses.

Shade runs in, pulls out his bow and sends an arrow at the Sorcerer. Hits him, boom.

Ironvein runs out of the room, asks Sid for a healing potion. She gives her the big one from the shitter and restores 11 HP. Nekron takes another swing and hits the guy. Sid sets off a Shield spell and runs/positions herself in front of the chanting Blevat.

Piccolo takes another swing at the puking Sorcerer, sadly missing again. Shade also swings his second attack and misses, botching so hard that his sword hits the wall and flies to the other side of the Sorrceror he was attacking.

Sid sends two magic missiles at the non-puking Sorcerer. He takes them both to the face, and is now bleeding from the mouth. Blevat’s chant goes off, giving everyone a +1 advantage, except the baddies get a -1. Piccolo rolls a 19 and swings at Barfy, connecting with her short sword and bloodying him.

The fighter swinging at Nekron misses. Reife decides to join the fight and swings and misses at the fighter. A darkness spell goes around the pukey and non pukey Sorcerer and Piccolo is plunged into darkness.

Nekron rolls mega good, severs the fighter’s head!

Sid positions herself behind the fighters and tells Blevat to set off his Light spell at the darkness. He says he’s going to think about it. On his turn, he does. The Chant spell ceases but his Light spell starts.

Piccolo stumbles out of the darkness. Shade fires an arrow in there but doesn’t seem like it hits anything. Not that we can see it.

The Light spell goes off. The pukey wizard has disappeared and then the non-pukey wizard disappears.

Ironvein messages folks to get out of the room so Sid can shoot off her

Ironvein runs in, grabs the barbarian’s battle axe, runs out and throws it at him. “Here’s your battle axe!” The throw was crazy and almost hits Piccolo. He picks it up.

Sid blasts off the fireball. Looks back in and there is fire scattered about, Shade’s sword glows hot. Dead elf pieces are scattered about, no other noises or anything.

Piccolo hears a noise skittering away down the hall near Raife. Raife blindly swings out with his sword and hits something that then pops back into sight and crumples to the ground. It’s the non-pukey Sorcerer. “Got him!” says Raife.

Ironvein examines the body. He’s dead. He has a black dagger with a Z on it and travel spell book that can’t be opened. Ironvein pockets the dagger. Nekron goes back into the room to check it out. The dead fighter has a much nicer battle axe so Nekron takes it. He also has a dagger, black chain mail and a hand throwing axe. He also takes the throwing axe. On the left hand of the dead lady elf is a very beautiful ring, seemingly unscathed. One small piece of silver that has been intricately woven into the shape of a tree. Nekron uses his dagger to cut off the finger, taking it with him but being very careful not to touch the ring.

Sid goes toward the dead Sorcerer and casts detect magic. Nothing else out here. They all head back in. Ironvein sees Nekron finishing the ring removal with his dagger. Ironvein goes to grab Nekron by the neck but she’s so upset that he dodges and she falls on the ground. She gets back up and tries to attack him again. “Never hurt an elf!”

The black-robed figure stabbed this charred elf with nine fingers (who was once non-charred with ten) and then threw her in the fire. Ironvein immediately attacked him (as she is a fierce protector of

Hang out for 40 minutes and relearn our spells. Sid casts invisibility on Piccolo so she can scout ahead again.

Next door. No traps and Piccolo can’t hear anything. Door protocol enacted. Blevat rams the door open with his holy shield. There’s another door inside. There’s a shaft in the ceiling that goes straight up into darkness. Sid doesn’t want to stand under the hole, naturally. Check the door right next to it. No traps, noise. Enter.

There’s a long 10’ pole sort of charred at one end. Underneath it is a leather backpack. Inside is a tinder box, two candles, two wine skins and five days worth of rations. We split up the rations, Sid takes the pole, tinderbox and candles. Blevat, naturally, downs one wine skin immediately and takes the other one with him. On the other side of the room is another door, traps and listening commence.

Blevat opens the door. Broken tables and chairs in this room, likely an old dining hall. In the corner someone started a little fire with a broken chair.

We go back and check another door in the hallway, other side of the hole space. No traps or noises but the handle is different. Blevat opens it, nothing happens. He shoots light up the hole and it just goes all the way up.

Continue down the hallway. Protocol Alpha. Going towards the round hallway. We come to a door. Pic checks for traps and noises, finds nothing. Protocol Beta, Nekron going in. He rolls a dex check and fails. Blevat drunkenly knocks into him and they fall into the room. There are more shackles in this room, no blood stains. Check for secret doors, nothing.

Back in the hallway, going into the archway just west of the statue hallway. Piccolo goes down the hallway, checking for traps as she goes. At the end is a long feast hall, 80’ high ceilings. Many crossbeams, tapestries hanging off. In the center of the long wall, about 20’ off of the floor, two crossed spears covering a shield. Looks like a real crest mount. The shield is painted with a big red dragon that is breathing fire.

Once we all get in and are looking around, there is a noise. A 4’ wide mosquito zips down from the ceiling and swoops down on us. Reife defers his turn. Shade shoots an arrow and misses. Sid hits it with two magic missiles. Ironvein also shoots magic missiles. That thing comes down, dead.

Pic climbs up the wall to the shield and two spears. Pic takes them off of the wall and tosses them down to Nekron, safely. Falls off the wall for feather fall, totally fine. Spears seem like regular spears. The shield is beautiful, very ornate painting of a dragon.

Here’s the breakdown of the hallway with the statues, starting from the South:

A – Human male warrior in splint mail holding a large shield, long plume on his helmet.
B – A lizard man, crouching and snarling, with a similar in his hand (not burnt).
L – Super ripped dude in a loin cloth with a fistful of javelins. Think the Rock.
C – Tall, plate armored warrior holding a spear in a defensive position
D – Snarling human lady with leather armor, saber sword angrily holding a dagger high up with one hand.
M – Dwarf with two war hammers in either hand.
E – Goblin chieftan with shield and club.
N – Slim human man with tight curled hair and a frilly cap with a little rapier.
F – Looks exactly the same as J, angry dude with mace.
G – A long-haired, long-bearded man in leather armour, brandishing a double-headed war axe.
H – An empty, rubble-strewn pedestal.
I – A cat-like, crouching elf with a buckler in one hand and a whip-bladed sword in the other.
J – A mailed man with a mace held high in one hand, and a short sword in the other, with a great helm covering his face entirely.
O – A half-round pillar that seems to be fashioned out of stone blocks, unlike the stone of the corridor.
K – A kneeling archer with a bow drawn to her ear, with a barbed double-headed arrow knocked on the bowstring.

EPISODE XIII

Blevat sleeps through his watch: Ironvein didn’t wake him up. When he stirs, notices Ironvein and the horses are missing.

When Blevat wakes up the group to inform them about the missing horses and the missing Bladesinger, Katahdin admits to letting the horses go, and immediately apologizes… he “couldn’t” allow the horses to stay. The rest of the party is rather pissed.

Katahdin also informs the party that he saw Ironvein leave when he got up to free the horses. She told him that she had to leave because “our people are in danger.”

Shade asks Silvervein if the horses are near. He goes out scouting, and upon returning tells Shade that four horses are at nearby stream. When the party goes to retrieve the horses, we discover that Shade and Piccolo’s horses are gone. Pic rides with Sid, Shade rides with Blevat. Katahdin has to run his ass alongside our horses, after promising to never “free” the horses again (and although it’s been a year, we swear he said that last time/night…).

Raife informs us that we’re only about half a day’s ride from the entrance of the Haunted Halls. The journey is uneventful, but we do see 15 eagles flying away (south) as we head toward the Halls.

The party arrives at the mouth of the rocky cliff that leads to the Haunted Halls. Reife offers to travel into the Halls with us for another 50GP and an equal cut of whatever treasures we find. We take him up on it and pay him 30gp up front, and promise the rest when we get back to town.

We wind our way up the rock face… Katahdin is tired but nobody cares. Piccolo asks Reife if he knows any history about the Halls, and Reife says that he knows that the keep was built by dwarves 200 years ago, commissioned by the bandit lord Rivior, who wanted a more secure keep for his treasure. (His previous keep is located south of the Halls in Starwater Gorge, and is known these days as The Killing Keep.) The Halls are supposedly chock full of danger as well as treasure… Reife has led 15 parties here, and has never had the pleasure of making a return trip with any of them.

We see two cave openings, one north and one south. Both look about 10 feet wide. Look into the first opening. Craggy cave, no blood smear or skulls. Looks like the trail bends a little, then splits into two directions. Piccolo checks for traps, doesn’t find any. We (minus K, who is tired) walk to Northgate. Looking in, about 30 feet down it takes a very sharp turn to the right. Piccolo detects traps but nothing here either. We walk in.

(We realize Khatadin has holy wooden beads in his dredlocks. Gross.)

Piccolo walks 30 ft ahead, 10 ft ahead of the light. Then Nekron, Blevat, Sid, Shade, Khatadin, and Reife in the rear. 30 ft into the cave, hard right corner. 20 ft down, a hard left turn. Can’t see around the bend. No traps. Piccolo pokes her head around the corner. Double doors in front of us. Detects traps on the old, strong doors. Intricate runes are on the door. Blevat does detect evil, none found. He tries the doors, they open.

Room has weapons and armor in the middle, a puddle of water in the northeast corner. Two longswords, three short swords, 1 broadsword, 1 dagger, and a large bare metal shield. Piccolo looks through the rusted gates on the opposite side of the room. Pic can see a crossbow, mounted down the hall, pointed at the door. She doesn’t detect any traps on the door. She also searches for traps on the weapon pile; but there doesn’t seem to be anything amiss.

Nekron and Blevat really want to open the gate. We vote and use a taut rope to knock over the weapons pile. A huge, loud sound as the metal scrapes against the dungeon floor (hey guys, we’re coming!).

When somebody reached down to touch one of the weapons, a mouth appears on the bare metal shield. “Beware, these were carried by people who will never carry them again!” Sid says, “That was a magic mouth!” Reife says, “No shit.”

We try to pull the gate open with rope but fail. Reife doesn’t help but while we’re pulling on the door, he finds a secret door. Oh, that would’ve been good to find a little earlier.

Nervous Sid wants Pic to detect traps but Blevat already opens the door. It’s a hallway. Pic leads the way, detecting traps but finding none. She goes ahead and scouts. We come to another room, all is much cleaner.

We’re in a guard’s quarters. Bunk beds and four strong chests, whose locks have been smashed and emptied. A door is open, a dead, petrified hobgoblin is clutching a longsword. Pic goes back to look at the crossbow, which is rotted and not functional. Goes beyond to another room, detecting traps along the way. It’s another quarters with bunks, but no strong chests. Two doors are in the room.

Nekron opens the door on the right. Smells like shit in there. Sure enough, he turns the corner and it’s a bathroom. Nekron backs up but K checks for traps. Almost falls into the poop pit when the toilet breaks away, and as he flails for a handhold to avoid falling, he finds a hole in the wall. He sticks his quarterstaff in the hole, breaks away a fake, string-like web and something sticks the tip of his staff. He pulls it out and a shit coin scorpion flies out, stinging K in the neck and taking 6 points of damage. K swings at him, misses. Blevat swings, misses. Nekron botches, but makes his dex check, so just swings and misses. K misses, Blevat hits him and smashes the shit coin scorpoin (Lock Lurker) into several pices.

A glutton for punishment, Blevat investigates the hole from which the Lock Lurker emerged. In it he discovers our bottles, all full of a colorless liquid. One is slightly larger than the other three. Blevat smells them, they smell invigorating. Bigger one smells slightly different. K drinks one, it restores 7 HP. We’ve got healing potions!

Walking down the hall, Pic detecting traps but misses finding a trip wire, which she trips. An arrow goes right by Pic, right by Nekron, hits Blevat for 4 pts of damage. Ouch!

We come to the end of the hallway to a wooden door. Sid asks for a secret door check. Shade finds a secret door on the north wall. He opens it. As he starts to go down, the door right in front of Piccolo flings open.

Four kobolds are on the other side of the door. One of them stabs Pic for 3 points of damage. One tries to hit Nekron but instead trips/falls on his sword for some damage. Shade heads down the secret door, runs down the hallway and finds another secret doorway. K follows him. Blevat swings and misses. Sid sends two magic missiles out, each one hitting and killing a kobold. Two down. One kobold comes up alongside Nekron, another one swings at him and connects, hard, for 4 damage. Another kobold comes up and swings, misses. Blevat rolls a 20, obliterates a kobold SUPER dead. One kobold flees. Pic misses his back but Nekron swings and cleaves him in two. Pic swings and misses. Two more kobolds appear but can’t attack with the kobold in front of Pic.

Shade opens the secret door, which leads into a small, bare chamber. Checks for secret doors, finds none, looks down the hallway in front of the door. Katahdin joins him.

Nekron swings his battle axe and murders another kobold. One kobold runs away screaming. Sid throws two more magic missiles, killing one and wounding another. The last kobold takes a swing at Nekron and misses. Blevat telepathically tells Pic to duck, swings and misses the kobold. Pic runs after the kobold who ran away. Gets to a dead end, sees a ladder getting pulled up out of reach.

Shade peeks out, sees that the corridors continue. Heads back to room, tells Katahdin what he saw. Katahdin checks the room for secret doors, as Reife finally follows into the room.

Nekron misses. Sid heads out to find Shade, K and Reife, since there is only one kobold left with the two best fighters. She tells them there is only one kobold left and to come back. Kobold hits Blevat., who then murders the kobold.

Pic decides to climb up the shaft after the kobold, even though there are clearly multiple kobolds up there.

The rest reconvene where we fought the kobolds. There are several weapons, especially bows and arrows, as this is a corner for ambushing/shooting arrows out of 8 peeky holes. There is a chamber outside, which a doorway. Down the hallway is a series of tall (10’) statues.

Piccolo is still climbing up the shaft. Sid walks over to the shaft. Four boulders come flying down the shaft. One hits Piccolo for 5 points of damage. Three of the boulders nail Sid, for 12 points of damage. Since she only has 13 HP, she is hurting really bad.

The rest of the party hears “Fuck!” x 4. Then Sid screaming and a crunching noise. Blevat runs over and drags Sid back from the shaft. Blevat cures light wounds, restoring 3 HP. Khetatin yells at Pic to get the fuck down. Another rock comes down, hits Pic for two points. Pic has 2 HP left. She drops, feather falls down and just rolls away from the next falling rock.

The group goes back to the dorm to hunker down for the night/heal/learn spells.

EPISODE XII - Don't ef with the horses, Holmes!

We started out with a character evaluation of whom may carry what. The harsh reality settles in that we have been spoiled and need to shed some weight.

A local shop owner give us an evaluation of some of the items we acquired on our last outing. We find out that the bracers found at the owl site are able to protect themselves as if they had stout armor and a shield. The Gauntlets give a bonus skill to climbing and swimming. The pair of rings definitely have some sort of connection to one another, though it’s unclear what the connection is. None of these items seem to be evil in nature. The gold band will provide the wearer with a gentle fall(feather fall?), if they we’re to find themselves trippin’ of a cliff or some shit.

Now that we are laxin’ in town, Sidhardda is going to study up on some spells, Shade The Operator of Smooth is going to spend some time with nature away from the town. There’s a lot of interest around experimenting with these new magic items, feel out what they can do. The idea is that we are going to try and tie up loose ends and head out to the Haunted Halls in 4 days.

Dawnbringer Blevat, Nekron and Piccolo Feet head off into the wilderness to spar and experiment with these new magical items. Before we head out, Ironvein the Bladesinger wants to try out the two rings while under the supervision of someone whom can deal with magic. Sidhardda and Ironvein the Bladesinger are going to put on the rings and see what sort of power they possess. After some testing, we figure out that these rings transmit the thoughts between the two wearers, whether they’re able to deal in magic or not. Not all thoughts are transmitted, just the ones directed at the other wearer. We decide that Ironvein the Bladesinger and Piccolo Feet will wear the twin (mind speak) rings.

Dawnbringer Blevat, trying out the bracers, discovers that they don’t help your armor class. Nekron takes of his armor, and discovers that he still maintains an Armor class of 5. While Piccolo Feet started to test out the Gauntlets, they seem to shrink to a perfect fit. While testing them in a local watering hole, they seems to get a speed of 18 above water, and 15 below water. Climbing for thieves get 99% chance of success, but none thieves get a 95% chance of success. While Dawnbringer Blevat falls off a roof while wearing the gold band, his fall is slowed to 2 feet per second five feet before hitting the ground.

We’ve reached out to Reife to join us in assisting us on our journey to the Halls, watching our horses and what not. Dunman Kiriag.. (whoa, Scott just spilt sum cider….new guy)…. got in touch with Reife and he’s down, he’ll provide his own transportation.

We are about to head out. The journey is expected to take 3 days out, 3 days back.

We head out the North side of town, and meet up with Reife, completely decked out. He says ," Oh, you guys." Looks like he talks. No need for chalkboards anymore. Shade The Operator of Smooth walks out to the woods with a wolf that he can communicate with, and a name for the wolf is forced out of Shade. Shade translates the name to Silvervein. Ironvein the Bladesinger feels a connection and welcomes him. Silvervein welcomes her right back (bow chicka wow wow).

In regards to approaching the Haunted Halls, Reife feels that we are making a mistake, but if we got the gold, he’s got the time. He says,“I’ve dropped people off, but have never had to pick them up.” Half up front is requested, and Dawnbringer Blevat provides.

The Haunted Halls was a keep for a bandit lord for his treasures until someone tried to take it from him, then there was massive blood shed. Probable Zhentrium activity at the Halls.

Not much activity on our first day of travels. We settle in for the evening.

The wolf has awaken Shade The Operator of Smooth. He communicates to him that there’s someone prowling around the horses. The wolf believes that the person prowling could be friendly and not a threat. Shade The Operator of Smooth awakes the camp. Out of the woods, along side of the wolf steps a half elf. He appears very earthly. Everything he has is all hand crafted, no flashy items. He’s very good looking, almost feminine. It seems he’s also on a quest to the Haunted Halls. What draws him to our camp is our handling of the horse. He would like to see our horses released.

Shade The Operator of Smooth wants to know why he’d approach the Haunted Halls alone. His name is Katahdin Giolla Dhe (KDG). He is a Druid, and he’s from the woods of Cormanthur, serving a god named Sulvanus. Apparently, Lathander and Sulvanus are in good standing with each other, which is comforting to Dawnbringer Blevat. He travels to the Haunted Halls in search for an individual. Katahdin Giolla Dhe and Shade The Operator of Smooth are working out the troubles with the horses and being tied up and what not. Sidhardda fills him in on the Zhentrium Network and why we are heading to the Halls. Everyone introduces themselves to Katahdin Giolla Dhe. He would like to join us on our journey to the halls. He’s willing to make an exception about the horses, as long as it’s for a good cause.

As they are conversing, Ironvien pulls her sword and recommends that everyone do the same. Seems like a threat is approaching. At the same time, the fire erupts in a supernova fashion. Blevat and Katahdin are temporarily blinded. Arrows begin flying into the camp site but no one seems to be hit by them. Magic missiles fly in and hit Reife, Shade, and Sid.

We see two guys storming our camp, and one of them attacks Shade, taking 8 points damage. Nekron fights back against them and attacks one taking 11 points damage, severely wounding him. Katahdin begins a spell chant to cast “Dust Devil”. Blevat begins a spell “Chant” to cast went his vision returns. Ironvein takes a shot at one with a long sword and rolls a Twenty, delivering 8 points of damage, making her victim bloodied. Piccolo pulls out a short bow and takes a shot at an enemy that appears to be flanking the group, but misses. Sid rises and moves to Blevat, beginning a Shield spell. A magic missile shoots out from the darkness, but collides against Sid’s shield and fizzles out. The wolf attacks one of the villains, but is unsuccessful in getting any damage. Piccolo shoots some arrows at the attacker, but misses again. Nekron Swings his axe down at the same attacker, and cuts the guys leg off, bleeding him out. Shade swings at an attacker and rolls a 17! he takes 9 points damage, killing him. Piccolo moves to the South end of the camp in a sneaky fashion, and spots the Mage shooting the missiles. It appears he hasn’t seen Piccolo. Everyone at the camp hears a faint voice in their mind ”Lay down your weapons and you will be spared”.

Sid attacks one of the humanoid black cloaked villains that is jumping from the darkness and does 7 points damage. Reife attacks and does 5 points of damage. The wolf bites at an attacker next to Nekron and kills him. Katahdin’s Dust Devil is summoned and does 4 points damage to an attacker. The Dust Devil will be around for 6 rounds. Blevat’s “Chant” executes and everyone gets +1 and and all attackers get -1. Nekron makes a move and takes on an attacker. He rolls a 19 and does 12 points of damage. That dudes dead. Ironvein shoots 2 magic missiles and takes 9 points of damage, taking out the Mage on the South end. The fire settles back down to it’s normal size. On the West side of camp, a laughing echoes as a figure draped in robes raises from the darkness. A voice can be heard,“ You may have won this skirmish, but we’ll get you in the end”. As he finishes, Reife shoots out two magic missiles at the robed figure. The figure vanishes and that’s all folks. It’s the middle of the night and we still have to figure how to get any sleep after all this rawkus.

Katahdin Giolla Dhe talks to the groups and says how he appreciates that he is with this group, as he surely would have died if he was alone in this battle.

EPISODE XI - The Beginning, The Middle and The End

The Black Witch

The Black Witch appears, dissipates into smoke and reappears via smoke behind our group and wants her magic book back. Nekron and Ironvein stand in front of the witch.

Sidhardda pulls out the magestar (orb) and the Black Witch sizes her up with a knowing look. Sid messages the rest of the group “Blevat needs to put his new mace through the book.”

Nekron holds the book at out towards Blevat, while pulling out his throwing axe. Blevat swings and hits the book, an unnatural sound emanates, and a concussive explosion knocks the group away from the book. The Black Witch walks over and picks up the book. She says, “Thank you for returning my book …. Can you explain what you were doing with it. Why are you here?”

Blevat takes a swing and misses.

Shade speaks up, mentioning Mag, while Ironvein rushes over, covering his mouth in an attempt to keep him from revealing anything, and says that they are just travelers trying to find a place to rest and heard of “dealings” in this area.

The Black Witch says: “Some call me Shadow-walker, some call me the Crone. I’m certainly not Old Mag, but if you want to meet her, she’s over there.”

She gestures to a spot on the ground just outside the burned out hut. A swirl of dirt winds up and we see bones underneath the dirt, and the bones stat to form themselves back together. Essentially we watch a body un-decay and eventually pieces of cloth form a black robe and broken stick reforms in her hand.

Season of the Witch, or, the fight with Old Mag

Shadow-walker smokes out of there, and can’t be seen anywhere. Mag mutters some words but nothing noticeable happens. Ironvein takes an attack stance and awaits Old Mag’s move. Piccolo Feet runs around Mag, flanking her. Nekron throws his axe at her, hitting her for 7 damage. Sid casts a Protection from Evil spell. Blevat casts Silence successfully on Mag. Shade fires an arrow and misses. Ironvein throws a dart and misses. Old Mag approaches Sid, enveloping her in the cone of Silence as well and hits her with her staff for 7pts of damage, which breaks the Silence. Shade narrowly misses with his 2nd arrow. Ironvein shoots her Magic Missiles at her but they don’t seem to affect her. Piccolo attacks from the back and rolls a MOTHAFLIPPIN’ TWENTY!!! for 4pts of damage (rolling a one). Nekron attacks with his battle axe and rolls a MOTHAFLIPPIN’ TWENTY!!! for 8pts of damage (rolling a one). Blevat, Sid, & Nekron all miss. Old Mag pulls an Emperor Palpatine on Nekron & Blevat. Nekron takes 18pts of damage, Blevat takes 21pts. Nekron, singed and barely hangin’ on, rolls another MOTHAFLIPPIN’ TWENTY and puts his axe in her chest where it sticks and she falls.

Shadow-walker smokes into existence again. “You did very well”. Old Mag dissipates into the dust and sand of which she had risen moments ago. When asked why she had her minion attack the party, Shadow-walker replies: “Old Mag was not my minion. You fought valiantly and deserve to have some of your questions answered. What do you want to know?”

We begin to talk about the Zhenterim, and Blevat says they are out to destroy the Black Network. Shadow walker replies: “Then we have a common interest.” Ironvein asks her to elaborate, and she says, “The Zhenterim have begun a process of bringing things out of balance… I have a vested interested in restoring the balance of things.” Blevat cures light wounds on himself and Nekron, when Nekron asks, “What have you done to stop the Zhenterim?” Sid talks reason to Shadow-walker. Blevat keeps curing light wounds. Shadow-walker says “I know much of the Zhenterim and their plans, and as strange as it may seem, I am in need of human assistance… a group to help battle this evil… however it is important to me and this task that your intentions be pure. Why do you seek the downfall of the Zhenterim?”

Shadow-walker tells the party that she is unable reveal the nature of her true self, but she does reveal that she has two sisters. She believes that Zhenterim’s ultimate goal is to bring about “pure darkness” in this world. She speaks of “weapons” that would help destroy the Zhenterim. She indicates that it seems there is a bit of a fractious nature amongst the party, and that perhaps they need some time to discuss matters. She leaves her book behind as a show of trust of the party and an indicator that she will indeed return, and then leaves to confer with her two sisters.

The group talks about what their next move will be, and agree to move forward with playing along with Shadow-walker, but also remain cautious and not reveal their affiliation with Lord Tessaril.

Shade goes on a nature walk and talks to the leader of the wolf pack, who speaks of his trust of this lady (Shadow-walker), and refers to her as The Maiden. Sid casts Read Magic to read the cover of the book. The words are in constant flux, and it’s hard to get a read on what the words actually are, but Sid comes away with the sense that the title of the book is The Beginning, the Middle and the End.

As the group begins to settle down for the evening, Shadow-walker returns, walking into camp with the grey wolf that Shade was speaking with before. There is a humility and a reverence to the way that she walks into camp rather than through her usual smoke teleportation. She speaks:

In the beginning there was a light. And then there was more. My sisters and I were present, but more unified then we are now. There was light, then more, and then a shadow came. The exact nature of this shadow I am not fully able to describe. It was as if it was …. nothing. My sisters and I fought this shadow and vanquished it. Or delayed it for some time, at the very least. The way in which we defeated I can’t explain, because even I don’t even know… my sisters and I made a choice to separate ourselves and separate this power into three to make sure the wielding of this power is something we could not do of our own accord. When we split, we gained our identities as we have them now.

My name is Thanatos. My sisters are Chronos and Ilithyia. We are still one, but we are separated in consciousness. The power we had wrought to defeat this shadow was split and contained in three artifacts. Each of us was given dominion over one artifact, but unable to know of the other two. Because the immense power imbued in these artifacts that created to overcome Shadow, we decided that part of our self-binding would ensure we could no longer wield these artifacts ourselves. We need mortal avatars to wield them.

This is why I need your help. The Zhenterim are trying to bring about the The Shadow. I do not believe they know what this will truly bring about.

Sid asks about the eagles. The wolf has been aware of the eagles migrating, but does not know why.

Ironvein asks about the artifacts:The only one I can tell you of is The Slow Knife, which is the artifact under my dominion. It is an artifact that will help you reach my sister Chronos. Of us three, she is the most attune to what goes on in this plane.

Piccolo asks where The Slow Knife is located.It is deep within the Haunted Halls. I am bound from divulging the exact location. I can tell you that there has been a lot of Zhenterim activity within the Haunted Halls. The Halls are not to be trifled with and i strongly suggest a guide.

When Thanatos is asked about her sisters, she replies:Ilithyia will treat you like someone she know a long time ago, Chronos like someone she knows presently. [Beginning, Middle, & End]

When she is asked about the other two artifacts:I only know their names: The Bells & The Spark.

Wishing the party luck, Thanatos departs.

We follow the wolf to a tree where some soft hooting is heard. The owls “clock” everybody and they rest their gaze on Shade. The wolf pats the hollow of the tree and Shade approaches, sticking his right hand in, pulling out a really simple steel key. The next item is a pair of silver rings tied together by a blade of grass. And then he pulls out 3 more things: another ring, a piece of armor, and another piece of armor.

Shade asks the wolf about the objects, it says that the key and the rings found their way to this place, the owls like magic tingly things.

We divide the objects up, Sid takes the key, Ironvein takes the two rings tied with a blade of glass, Piccolo takes the gold ring, Shade takes the bracers and Blevat takes the gauntlets.

The owls watch over us as we sleep (per Shade), but Nekron stays up.

In the night Nekron hears noises, from 2 spots. He wakes up Piccolo and Ironvein. Piccolo sneaks quietly to the shadows to hide and alert the party with a whistle if he sees anything, while Ironvein pretends to lay asleep, but with sword drawn and ready to attack. Nekron walks out to pretend to piss in the woods. Nekron and Ironvein hear Piccolo’s whistle, and then a man screams “Now!” Ironvein is up with sword drawn, and then screams “Wake up!” to the others. Ironvein fires Magic Missiles at one of the unknown assailants, hitting him for 8pts. Nekron full sprints towards Piccolo Feet.

The rest of the bandits miss. Ironvein kills the man in front of her. One of them hits Blevat for 2pts. Nekron hits the bandit attacking Piccolo Feet for 9pts. One shoots an arrow at Ironvein, but his bow string breaks. Sid gets hit for 5pts. Piccolo takes down his assailant. Blevat gets hit for 1hp. The Grey Wolf comes running in to help Shade & Sid, but misses. Blevat nails his dude, but he doesn’t quite go down. Sid Magic Missle’s her attacker, taking him down. Ironvein attacks Blevat’s assailant for 6hp, and he goes down. Nekron hits one of the archers with his throwing axe for 9hp.

The two archers go running … Blevat casts Entangle on one of them. The wolf chases down the other with Piccolo & Nekron. However, Sid gets him with Magic Missiles. The entangled archer is kept alive and bound and gagged.

The next morning we run into the Purple Guard and hand over our captive.
We’re back in Evening Star.

Shade stays outside of town, Blevat heads to the tavern, and the rest of us head to Lord Tessaril, only to find out she is not in town at the moment. We take the magical items to be appraised from a magic shop. She charges us 50gp to not tell us much.

The local contractor says it’s gonna take about four weeks to fix everything for about 520GP.

EPISODE X

On the 7th night in town, the group drink, Sid gets a letter delivered from Lady T advising her to meet Reife at The Lonesome Tanker the next day. Everyone has shopped in town, regained strenth, etc. They sleep this last night, leave some fortunes in rooms, and suite up. B is called to the house Lathander, upon his return he now no longer has his previous mace, now has a much larger, very matte colored look.

The group heads out to the tavern. When they walk in, everyone knows Blevat’s name. The bartender (Dunman) advises them in Reife’s direction. It turns out to be a kid, kinda a dick. He only communicates via a board around his neck. They sit down for lunch, this kid can drink. Pic and Ironvein both notice a figure in a clock knock over a drink and rush in their direction. They stand to their feet immediately and get ready for attack. Ironvein and Pic begin to fight, yelling at everyone to stand to their feet. There are 4 attackers to fight. A mage in the corner begins throwing magic missiles at Ironvein, hitting her twice with 2 missiles each throw. She is badly hurt. Everyone continues to fight. Ironvein slashes one of them in half diagonally, his top slides off. Everyone continues fighting. Suddenly Ironvein let’s out a scream, raising her free arm, she shoots magic missles at the mage’s face. He is hurt, but not down. All of the guys start to come after Ironvein. Everyone is fighting, Sid hits another magic missile at the mage, Nekron kills a dude, P kills a dude and Shade eventually kills the mage. But not before B creates a sanctuary around Ironveine, thereby saving her life. IV was badly hurt, Blevat heals her almost near perfect. IV says a sincere thank you and then walks outside needing 20minutes. Inside the rest of the group questions Reife, he is still an ass.

Everyone decides to head out. Along the way IV is questioned, she is not giving much info, back to her usual high and mighty behavior. P plays on his new Picolo as they ride. Reife is still a dick.

We travel for awhile, eventually it starts to get dusky. Reife motions for P to stop playing his instrument. Reife says this is as far as I will take up, up ahead are the burnt remains of the hut. You can find your way home says the dick. Sid tips him. Pockets the coin, thanks governor, and heads on his way.

N urges everyone to take camp, they get a little off the path. P climbs a tree. She can’t see anything. B/IV take the first watch. He heals her some more. While watching they see some eagles pass them above and head back to town, B tells the group cause he doesn’t know how to keep secrets. The ranger gets frustrated because no one woke him up. Sid has learned a new ISP spell. Everyone packs up camp. Everyone notices that Blevat is suddenly praying with his weapon in a way they have never seen before. N is visibly unhappy about heading to this hut. Almost as unhappy as B looks as they proceed. Every time someone says “witch”, B looks spooked out.

Sid asks about his mace, he says “Def has powers against evil. Also, I feel like our mission is really special, so I wrote to one of the high priests of L, this is a relic from the armory of special weapons, this was sent to help and inspire, they are really excited about what we are doing here.”

Everyone rides.N says, “I haven’t know my clan in some time… you are now my clan… I do not know what to do going into this magic… tell me what to do and I will swing my sword.” It’s a heart felt speech on the part of the barbarian. B says, “Are we there yet?”

Riding along, down the path, can see a clearing ahead. The road curves off to the left just a little bit. We come down the road, come around the corner, looking throw where the trees part. We see a small homey looking thatched roof cottage. Smoke is coming out of the chimney, with a little garden off to the side (looks healthy and edible).

B does a detect evil spell, nothing. Sid detects magic. Ranger wants to throw a rock, so he does. Picks up a rock, hits the house, it goes “dink”.

Sid, IV and N walk around the cottage to check it out. They see a laundry line, that’s it.

After a beat, Sid hits a fireball at the door of the cottage. It erupts into flames, and for a second we view see the door and the walls of the house quicker, like jello, as if not real. The fireball burns for it’s duration and then dissipates. After that, we hear behind us a twisted wolf like howl, hard to tell how far away. The sound starts to surround us. We are clearly inside the ring of the wolves. Ironvein shares that she is not worried, she believes the wolves are friends. She shares that wolves have been following them and have been friendly. Again, Shade is upset he was not woken up to talk to animals. Blevat sends another mini fireball, it does nothing. After the flames hit, there is another howl, more aggressive.

Nekron freaks out, he is a brut who does not like magic nor wolves. He nearly barges in, but the group stops him. They all decide to go into the cottage, except Blevat, who hangs back, he doesn’t like this. Sid sets her orb out. Nekron shoulders the door, it doesn’t give, he tries again, nothing. Sid puts on the gauntlets and the door turns. She peeks inside, normal cottage, doesn’t seem like anyone is in there. They begin to look around not touching anything, B moves closer but still doesn’t go inside.

Each person who enters the cottage has their own horrid experience, seeming alone. Suddenly Nekron and Ironvein both come to, Ironvein has her dagger in Nekron. Her eyes widen with recognition, immediately followed by apologetic eyes, and pulls back her dagger. At the same moment a fright train blur charges at her knocking her over. It’s Blevat. Everyone begins to come to. The day is a lot more siniter than when they started, and what they now see they are in is the burned wreckage of a hut. Shade asks, “What happened to everyone? I came in and saw a table filled with forrest animals, seated around the table with empty plates in front of each of them.” Sid tells a tale of how she found her father inside, the door shut behind her. Her father was not threatening, but he warned her that her friends were dangerous. There was a banging on the door, she opened the door. Picolo saw 2 friends that had recently passed, his worst nightmare. Ironvein tells the others what she has seen, the horror, words can not describe. But she was attacked by a creature that looked like none of her friends. She fought this creature, eventually landing her dagger in the creature. It was in that moment that the magic of the house disappeared and she was looking into the eyes of Nekron. Nekron himself had a similar experience, he saw his parents inside the room, they attacked him, and then turned into Ironvein. Blavat says that he saw everyone go into the cottage, and then the door closed in a mysterious way. He was about to go back to the bar, but instead charged the door of the cottage, entering to find IV stabbing N in the shoulder, so he charged her.

IV does a detect magic spell, there is a flagstone dead center in the hut. She asks Picolo to detect a trap, he finds none. IV takes her sword and flips the stone over, revealing a package underneath, wrapped in tattered velvet. Nekron storms over and grabs the package, unwrapping it. It’s a book, that once unwrapped feels 3x as heavy as it did before. The cover is jet black, and everyone can slightly see darker black rooms moving across the front of the book. Behind then (towards the entrance), they hear a voice “So I see you found my book.” They turn around to see a stunningly beautiful woman with long black hair dressed in a tight-fitting black robe. Her eyes are piercing iridescent blue. She turns into smoke, the smoke darts across the room behind them, they all flip around as they hear “I’d like to have it back.”

EPISODE IX

Back through the Gwysol’s mirror ….
Just as we start to settle in ….. there’s a heavy boom and Keep shakes. We spend a few minutes healing those who are harmed and then head up stairs. The booming seems to be coming from the main front door of the Keep. Pic & Shade head up to the 2nd floor to see what they can from the caved in hole open to the outside, while everyone else takes a defensive stance in the meeting chamber behind locked door.
They see it’s a hill troll. Shade feels weird that it’s just a lone hill troll with none other to be seen. Shade stays up top as Pic comes down to tell us. Shade fires an Omar Sheaf arrow and hits the troll, who screams in pain, looking up to Shade.
We all run upstairs and find that the troll has started to climb and is at the level of the broken wall. Shade takes a point blank shot at his eyeball and misses.
Nekron misses and narrowly misses getting chomped himself. Pic leans out the window of the 2nd floor which is at troll leg level. He attacks with the recently found magic sword and rolls a TWENTY! cutting off the foot of the troll. Ironvein sticks one of the magic darts in the troll’s shoulder. Sid hits the troll smack in the face with both her magic missiles, felling him to the ground . He lays there. Shade runs down the stairs. Nekron throws his axe at him (rolling a 20) and severs his arm.
Blevat immediately heads to the kegs. The rest head down as Shade tells Nekron that it’s odd for this hill troll to be alone, and it was also very odd that it was so determined to get inside a door it could barely fit in. Odd troll behavior. Nekron retrieves his axe. Pic begins to search the body.
Pic, Nekron, and Shade begin to see the severed limbs move towards the body. It swipes at Nekron, missing, but bites into Pic’s hip, causing some serious damage. Shade causes some damage with his scimitar and Nekron (rolls a 20) and beheads the troll.
Ironvein and Sid light the troll afire.
The party finds that their horses’ necks have been slit. They decide to hunker down on the third floor to get some rest. Shade at the beginning of the second watch, informs the group that he saw, about a mile or two out, a humanoid on the the back of winged creature, flapping in the distance.
The next day the group sets out. After some time, six eagles are seen above, flying in the same direction that the group travels …….. Eveningstar.
The group settles down for the evening, lighting a fire and eating their rations. The night is uneventful (or so it seems; nudgewink Ironvein).
Finally, Eveningstar appears on the horizon. The group b-lines to Lady Lord Tessaril.LLT asks of our adventure. Nekron asks her of her knowledge of the eagles. She avoids the questions as we tell her about our adventure. Sid shows her the orb and it does some cool, sentient stuff and then Sid and LLT walk off together.
They return and LLT commends us for our worthiness. And hopes that we will continue our inquiry into the Zhentarim faction.
Three suggestions ….. 1st: Old Hag by the name of Mag, that died ? years ago. The hut is haunted, but might answer some questions. It is undoubtedly evil. 2nd: The Killing Keep at Starwater Gorge, the original stronghold of Rivior, a human barbaraian and thief that amassed a great thieves guild. 3rd: The Haunted Halls. Rivior at the height of his wealth and power commissioned a group of dwarves to design and build his base of operations. Now a hallowed hall of strife and destruction. LLT also suggest questioning the inhabitants of Eveningstar, b/c no one can be trusted.LLT thanks us and walks off to let us discuss our next move ….

From there everyone heads to the Temple, getting Ironvein a room (Lethandar provides!). Nekron cleans his taint, Ironvein combs her hair. Everyone heads to The Lonesome Tankard for a drink, 26 drinks. Almost everyone is drunk, even Ironvein is showing a bit a sway from the liquor… is that a smile? Sid relays to the group what LLT shared, she had suspected and now truly believes her to be Gwysol’s daughter. She’ll be receiving the deed for the castle & keep and LLT wants her to continue in the footsteps of her father, to seek out and destroy the Zhentarim. Ironvein asks to continue on with the group, sharing that she was asked to seek out the Zhentarim, discover their motives and take them out, in an effort to protect the elf race. Everyone gladly accepts. Blevat makes a peace offering to Shade…he brings out Shade’s boar! Everyone leaves the pub, to head to sleep for the night, with plans to discuss their next move in the morning.

EPISODE VIII

The adventure through Gwysol’s mirror continues ……

We begin again in the room with two recently slain hobs, adjacent to the “invisible plank” room. We settle for a bit as Sid memorizes some spells.
Nekron returns to pull the real boards back over to our current side. Shade notices a piece of the wall that is not of the norm; a secret door. Shade enters. In the middle of the room are two gauntlets; Shade dons them. These don’t seem to be special. Sid detects magic in the corner. Shade pulls out a chest. Short sword*, three arrows* (Shade), five darts* (Ironvein), a potion* (Blevat), a ring* (Sid), 500 PP, 850 GP, 5 gems (* = magical detection). We leave the PP & GP.
Grinkle asks about our interest in the fountain. We ask him about the fountain; he mentions their flag which is a severed hand, missing a finger, yellow & torn. He says it’s his tribes flag; his tribe is large and this is only one faction.
We head upstairs to a room with a well in it. We leave the well alone. Grinkle opens up to us about how this tribe has treated him poorly. Blevat asks if he want to be a part of our tribe. Grinkle draws us a map of the courtyard on the other side of the door.
Pic sneaks out and surveys. There are three hobgoblin sentries on top of the catwalk. Pic attempts to climb the wall twice, failing; on his 2nd attempt he makes noise and a hobgoblin snorts. Nekron busts out and rushes the stairs. Shade, Blevat, and Grinkle follow. Sid brings Pic some healing potion. Ironvein sneaks along the wall to the opposite corner of the courtyard. Shade & Nekron make it to the catwalk. Blevat and Grinkle rush the barracks door. Blevat kicks in the door and attacks three hobgoblins playing cards. He & Grinkle miss. Ironvein explores pony stable and does NOTHING. Shade fires and misses twice. Sid pulls Pic back into the room. Ironvein moves onto the catwalk. Shade pulls his scimitar and destroys a foe. Nekron decapitates his enemy with his battleaxe, sending his head over the wall. Pic heads to the barracks, but fires a shot back at the remaining hob on the catwalk, nailing him for a small amount of damage. Blevat gets hit, barely. However, Grinkle gets bloodied, losing an ear. Grinkle’s retaliation is strong, planting his short sword in the middle of his foe’s head, taking his life. Grinkle kneels down and takes a finger, pocketing it. Ironvein runs over to Shade. Shade leaps to the roof below, poorly, damaging himself. He manages to stay on the roof. His plan being to light the roof on fire, but his poor jump keeps him from breaking out flint and steel …. for now. Nekron closes in on the last hob on the catwalk with his throwing axe, but misses. Pic runs into barracks, screaming for everyone to get out, while firing his bow, but misses. Sid uses the Gwysol’s ring to send a fireball to the back of the room, taking out three hobs. Shade is briefly convinced his pyro insticts are successful …. at the wrong corner of the roof. Blevat crunches his first hob of the battle out of existence. Shade makes another tough jump to the ground, hurting himself again. Sid takes out another hob with a missile blast. Nekron halves the last hob up top. Pic attacks with his recently discovered magic short sword, but is not able to inflict much damage. Grinkle misses. Ironvein attempts to just from roof to courtyard, falling on her butt. Shade saves the pony. Pic takes some serious damage … again. Grinkle, ever determined, hits another guy, putting him on the brink of death. However, Grinkle is hit next and goes down. Blevat destroys the hob attacking Pic. Shade runs and takes out our last guy.
Grinkle breathes his last breath as Blevat lays hands on him.
Nekron buries his axe in the ground, and expresses his frustration about comrades being in battle while others do not join them in the fray, and goes to retrieve his throwing axe. The group argues around the fountain. Nekron returns and climbs the fountain. He can not rip free the orb.
Lacey puts on the guantlets, climbs to the top and the orb breaks free and hoves, while spikes protrude from it. The guantlets are just awkward though and she takes them off. Mayhaps it’s Gwysol’s ring? The orb shrinks again and Sid can handle it.
Blevat decides to bury Grinkle on the sunrise side of the Keep. Shade does not join out of frustration of Lethander’s failure to save Grinkle. Sid cuts off the finger of his last foe to bury with him. “It’s dawn” is Blevat’s eulogy.
We go back down to retrieve our left-behind gold and platinum. Ironvein & Piccolo take our charmed hobgoblin back to the charm mirror.
The group decides to settle down to regain some strength when the Keep begins to shake and rumble …

the adventure continues ....

At dawn, Lady Tessaril and unknown female elf ride. This elf has an impressive sword, whose scabbard is forged in the image of a wolf. The elf is Ironvein. She has come from afar, serving as an emissary from her clan. Ironvein seems hesitant, as is our group of adventurers, but they ride off together, back towards Gwysol’s stronghold.
Once again, eagles are seen overhead, three this time, flying in the direction that we are headed.
We stop to camp off the beaten path. During Shade’s watch, just before we wakes Nekron for his watch, he hears a twig snap. Three ghouls approach. Shade wakes up Nekron and Ironvein.
Nekron takes a defensive stance. Shade hits one with an arrow. Ironvein wakes up Piccolo; Nekron yells, waking up the rest of the group. Axes swing, magic missiles and arrows fly; some hit, some miss. Ironvein dances an attack, decapitating one ghoul. Blevat attacks and crushes another with his mace. Sid uses Pagos (freezing hands) and takes down the third and last ghoul. Blevat heals Pic back to normal.
We spend the rest of the night resting so that our Mage can get her rest.
That next afternoon we arrive at Gwysol’s Keep. Picc finds the trap door in the middle store room of the basement, uncovering a shimmering mirror. Sid goes through, but Nekron tries and fails. We figure out that it’s Gwysol’s ring that gets one through, so we all hold hands and are able to pass through.
We find ourselves in a dark hallway with a flickering glow at the end, which we move towards. But there’s only a stone wall at the end with a wooden sconce. Sid pulls the sconce and a door opens to a room w/ a chasm in the middle. on the other side of the chasm is a hobgoblin stroking the head of a huge ape. Two planks lead to the other side. Nekron turns into a bear only to attempt to cross the chasm, falling into the pit. The others must defeat the hobgoblin without their shapechanger.